Photographs of businessman Michael Ching Mo Yeung, the president and CEO of Mo Yeung International Enterprise, match Interpol’s photo of fugitive Cheng Muyang, who is sought by the People’s Procuratorate of Qiaoxi district in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, for graft and concealing and transferring illegal gains.

Cheng, 45, is the son of Cheng Weigao – a powerful official who served as party chief of Hebei and later chairman of the local people’s congress. Cheng Weigao was investigated for corruption and subsequently expelled from the Communist Party in 2003. He died in disgrace in 2010.

[…] Cheng Muyang, a permanent Hong Kong resident, fled from the mainland to the city in 2000. He left Hong Kong for Canada in the same year, according to the CCDI. China only made a formal request to Interpol on August 27 last year to put Cheng on its wanted list. [Source]

The Xinhua commentary enumerates three “disgraces” Canada has incurred in Cheng’s case: letting Cheng stay, letting Cheng make financial contributions to “several political parties,” and letting Cheng become the new “Lai Changxing.” Lai was a businessman wanted for involvement in a smuggling ring, who fled to Canada in 1999 and was only extradited in 2011. He is now serving a life sentence in China. Xinhua continues:

What’s really breathtaking is that, despite nearly half a month of noise from the media, including from Xinhua’s international coverage, Canada has yet to let out so much as a squeak on the subject. You have to admire their “tolerance.” Little do they know that in the eyes of the Chinese masses, harboring Cheng Muyang is Canada’s shame.

[…] First there was Lai Changxing, now there’s Cheng Muyang. And Cheng may be just the tip of the iceberg. The media have reported that at least three Chinese fugitives are living in Canada: former Yunnan Tax Bureau official Li Wenge, former Xirui Group board chair Yang Xili from Liaoning, and former Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Company financial officer Cui Ying. You can’t help but applaud Canada for its perfection on this front! [Chinese]

“We’ve got no extradition treaty with China,” immigration lawyer Rudolf Kischer told Xinhua in an interview. “The rule of law prevails in Canada, and the law says if you’re a permanent resident, you have the right to remain in Canada.”

[…] He said Ching’s case differs from another notorious case of Lai Changxing — a former businessman and billionaire entrepreneur who went into hiding in Vancouver in late 1990s, as Lai was not a permanent resident in Canada, and was simply hiding here as a visitor. [Source]

Cheng earned Canadian permanent residency in 1996, and applied for citizenship at least as early as 2006, but has been unsuccessful to date. A refugee claim from 2013 or 2014 was also rejected. Cheng has apparently hired David Matas, the human rights lawyer who also represented Lai.

]]>183605Censorship Vault: The Lai Changxing Casehttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/11/censorship-vault-lai-changxing-case/
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:35:01 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=164804Censorship Vault features previously untranslated censorship instructions from the archives of the CDT series Directives from the Ministry of Truth (真理部指令).

State Council Information Office: At the beginning of April, the Lai Changxing case will go to trial at the Intermediate People’s Court of Xiamen. All websites please take care to republish Xinhua wire copy only. Do not hype or comment on the case, and downplay it. Effectively manage BBS forums, weibo, and other interactive platforms. (March 31, 2012)

]]>164804Censorship Vault: Beijing Internet Instructions Series (17)http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/11/censorship-vault-beijing-internet-instructions-series-17/
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:31:03 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=147126In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the “Beijing Internet Instructions” series to the Censorship Vault. These directives were originally published on Canyu.org (Participate) and date from 2005 to 2007. According to Canyu, the directives were issued by the Beijing Municipal Network Propaganda Management Office and the State Council Internet management departments and provided to to Canyu by insiders. China Copyright and Media has not verified the source.

Everyone, this has been notified in the afternoon, and is now stressed. When reprinting articles criticizing the “No Worries” theater group’s destruction of the environment, do not reprint articles linking this matter with Chen Kaige’s participation in the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony, websites may not report or track netizens’ name-signing activities concerning this matter. All articles and pages that are inconsistent with the above requirements must be speedily removed.

14 May 2006, 10:40, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

All websites are requested to speedily delete the article “Many Hugely Corrupt High Officials Convicted to Suspended Death Sentence, Evoking Challenges,” where special subjects have already been made, please delete them speedily.

Everyone, please delete the sentence “with the authorization of the State Council Information Office” from the present article “IT Specialist Websites Establish ‘Civilized Network Association,’” other matters are not changed.

14 May 2006, 18:00, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Huo

The case of the “China Caijing News Magazine” journalist Yang Xiaoqing, who is suspected of extortion is in the process of being tried. In view of the fact that this case is relatively sensitive and complex, concerning information related to this case, websites are requested to only transmit Xinhua copy and information from Hunan Red Net, do not reprint articles from other sources, forums are also not to post this sort of articles.

14 May 2006, 18:00, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Huo

Concerning information on civil servants’ salary adjustment, websites are only to reprint Xinhua copy, it is strictly prohibited to reprint information from any other source, forums are also not to reprint this sort of article, where the Dagong Daily article “Civil Servant Salary Structures Will Be Changed” and others have been reprinted, they must be immediately deleted. Management must be strengthened, all sorts of information, posts and commentary that does not conform to the above requirements must be timely deleted.

I. In the near future, the Municipal Information Office will roll out a model for the agreement, and provide for strict management measures;

II. All websites bear the first responsibility to notify netizens to jointly abide by this agreement;

III. The text of this agreement will have comprehensive requirements in the regulatory, netizen self-discipline and propaganda areas;

IV. This agreement will at the same time protect to the largest extent the rights and interests of netizens to participate regularly in discussions;

V. Before and after the text of this agreement is made public, all relevant departments and work personnel of companies are requested to strictly grasp the scale of discussions.

19 May 2006, 8:50, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Fan Tao

All websites, pay attention, all those having opened trackers on the article “Persisting in Uniting as One and Looking Ahead – Reviewing the Historical Discussion on Deng Xiaoping and Other Older Generation Revolutionaries Concerning Correctly Dealing with the ‘Cultural Revolution,’” please close trackers. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

No online reports are to be made of the film Summer Palace that participated in the Cannes Film Festival without permission, do not reprint this sort of information or comments, websites are also not to interview or report on the main creators of Summer Palace. If the content of articles on the Cannes Film Festival involves the film Summer Palace, websites are also requested to reprint or report this, this sort of article is not to be posted on forums, blogs or trackers.

20 May 2006, 18:37, Fan Tao, Municipal Information Office

Please immediately close news trackers on reports concerning the repatriation of Lai Changxing.

Please delete information that the original version of the Mao Zedong portrait will be sold at auction.

]]>147126New Series: From the Censorship Vaulthttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/08/new-series-from-the-censorship-vault/
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:00:36 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=142456Editor’s Note: From the Censorship Vault features previously untranslated censorship instructions from the archives of the CDT series Directives from the Ministry of Truth (真理部指令). These instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

The series opens with the very first “directive” posted on CDT Chinese:

Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China: All information concerning the Yuanhua case in Fujian must come from the Central News Office. Reporting must be unified. Do not produce “side stories” or distribute news through improper channels. Do not use this case as a soapbox for other matters. Do not spread news through unusual methods. Do not reprint news reporting from overseas or foreign media. (August 30, 2000)

Yuanhua Group, a foreign import business based in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in Fujian Province, was once the darling of China’s nascent capitalist economy. Founded by Lai Changxing in 1994, Yuanhua brought luxury cars, oil and cigarettes into the country. Lai also masterminded a smuggling ring that averted hundreds of billions of yuan in taxes. Lai eventually fled to Hong Kong, then Canada, where he remained from 1999 until April 2012. The Canadian government agreed to extradite him on the condition that he not receive the death penalty if found guilty. Lai is currently serving a life sentence.

]]>142456Sensitive Words: Don’t Eat the Yogurthttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/04/135239/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/04/135239/#commentsTue, 24 Apr 2012 11:01:26 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=135239As of April 23, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the “search for user” function):

On April 9, CCTV news anchor Zhao Pu posted a warning on his Weibo: “Text message from an investigative reporter: Do not eat yogurt (the thick kind) or jelly, especially children. Their contents are truly frightening. I won’t speak about it in detail.”

The post was forwarded 130,000 times before it was eventually removed. (Global Times published a slap on the wrist.) Zhao has not appeared on his program for almost two weeks, prompting netizens to speculate that he has been suspended from his duties because of this post. Read more about the incident from CDT Chinese.

Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.

Xiāo Yǒng [肖勇]，Ōu Róngguì 欧荣贵，Yáng Chóng [杨崇]，Liú Shānjuān [刘珊娟]，Huáng Wénxūn [黄文勋] (These five were detained for demonstrating in Guangdong. They were calling on Hu Jintao to make his assets publicly known.)

Zhāng Xīnqǐ [张新起] (Zhang is the newly appointed mayor of Qingdao. He has had lawns dug up and planted densely with new trees, earning him the Weibo nickname “Tree Planting Magnate [zhòngshù dàwáng 种树大王]。”)

Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results. Read the original post on CDT Chinese here.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.

Mr Lai built his empire in the exuberant early days of China’s economic miracle. After quitting his first job, as a well digger, he started an automotive parts factory in 1979.

In a few short years, his business quickly spread, into shipping, cigarettes, paper, textiles, umbrellas, finance, and consumer electronics. He then started up an import-export company which the Chinese authorities claim was merely a front for a spectacular smuggling ring that shipped in everything from Mercedes-Benz saloons to pornography.

In one case, uncovered by investigators, Mr Lai’s ships allegedly brought in more than ten million packets of cigarettes in 1999, dodging £11 million of duty by disguising them as wood shavings.

Altogether, he is accused of earning £4 billion from smuggling in just the three years from 1996 to 1999, a sum almost equivalent to Xiamen’s annual GDP.

State news agency Xinhua said the court in Xiamen, a southern coastal city, was trying Lai for “masterminding a criminal ring engaged in smuggling and bribery”, which reportedly cost the country $3.6bn in unpaid tax. Six hundred people were investigated in connection with the case and 300 punished, according to Xinhua. At least two of those – the former chief of the Xiamen branch of the Commercial and Industrial Bank and former section chief of the city’s customs bureau – were executed, while 11 were given suspended death sentences or jailed for life. Many believed Lai’s connections went far higher.

But some in Xiamen compared Lai, 53, to Robin Hood for his generosity to many in his home town. He was said to have been a lavish tipper who even bought equipment for local police.

China has reassured Canada he will not face the death penalty if convicted.

Canada, which does not practise capital punishment, forbids the extradition of prisoners to countries where they may be executed.

Correspondents say the case had soured diplomatic relations between the two countries.

[…][Lai’s] lawyers had argued that at least seven of his associates have died or disappeared in China’s justice system. They said he would face torture and execution in China as a scapegoat for high-level officials who were involved in corrupt practices.

China is believed to carry out more executions a year than any other country, but, in this case, has promised Canada that Mr Lai will receive a fair trial and will not face the death penalty.

Canada’s Federal Court cleared the way for the extradition of Lai Changxing, dismissing concerns that he could be tortured or executed once he arrives back in China.

Lai’s deportation would remove a thorn that has long plagued Sino-Canadian relations. Beijing has sought the deportation of Lai, accusing him of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s in one of China’s biggest political scandals in decades.

Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999 and claimed refugee status, saying the allegations against him were politically motivated.

“The Chinese government’s stance on Lai Changxing returning to China to stand trial is clear. We welcome the Canadian court’s decision,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The verdict was issued just after the visit of Canada’s foreign minister, John Baird, to China, where he said “both the Canadian people and the Chinese people don’t have a lot of time for white collar fraudsters”.

China promised Canada in a diplomatic note that Lai would not be tortured or executed and that Canadian officials would have access to him.

According to the Chinese government, Lai was involved in the “biggest smuggling ring ever”. When the ring was broken up in the late 1990s, a haul of $6.8 billion (£4.2 billion) of goods was discovered and 14 people were given the death penalty, with eight of them executed and four of them committing suicide.

The smuggling ring in the seaside city of Xiamen saw whole tankers full of crude oil slipped into the country, as well as fleets of luxury cars, while Lai allegedly bought off Communist party members, the police, customs officers and the banks with cash, school fees for their children and houses. It was a stark illustration of the corruption that continues to rot the party.

The headquarters of Lai’s Yuanhua group was a seven-story building known as the Red Mansion, after a Chinese literary classic, and which the Chinese state media described as a decadent palace, full of chandeliers, lavish furniture, and dozens of beautiful young women who were skilled in “singing, dancing and massage”.

An initial attempt to break up Lai’s ring was rebuffed, with investigators’ phones being tapped and all leads coming to a dead end.

In the end, Beijing had to send around 1,000 officers to take over Lai’s headquarters.

Around 200 Communist party officials were punished, and another 150 faced criminal charges. But Lai, the alleged mastermind, slipped free, running to Canada after being tipped off about his imminent arrest. He left behind an 88-floor skyscraper he was building, and his professional football team, the Xiamen Red Lions.

Giving China the benefit of the doubt on human rights is a relative novelty for Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Shortly after he won office in 2006, Mr Harper pledged that Canada “would not sell out” in talking about human rights with China. His first foreign minister accused China of industrial espionage. When Mr Harper visited China in 2009, his hosts chided him for waiting almost four years before coming.

That visit marked the start of a courtship. China is a friend and “important ally”, Mr Baird said when he visited the country this month. Though he stressed that he could not interfere in Mr Lai’s case, he added that “the Canadian people and the Chinese people don’t have a lot of time for white-collar fraudsters.”

This change of tune owes much to Canada’s search for new export markets to compensate for the stagnation of its main economic partner, the United States. China’s share of Canadian exports has almost doubled in the past five years (though it still amounts to only 3.3% of the total). China has become an important market for Canadian fuels and softwood lumber. Investment by Chinese state companies, once reviled, is now welcomed. This month a Chinese oil company bought OPTI Canada, an ailing tar-sands producer, for C$2.1 billion ($2.2 billion).

Like others, Canada also sees ties with China as a potential source of leverage with the United States. “There is a real sense in Canada now that the Americans take us for granted and that Canada has to strengthen relations with China in order to get more respect in the US,” says David Emerson, a former foreign minister who is now a consultant. Delays by the American State Department in granting approval for a cross-border pipeline to carry crude from the tar sands to the Gulf Coast have prompted calls for a pipeline from Alberta to the west coast, for shipment to China.

U.S. Department of Commerce General Counsel Cameron Kerry, in Beijing on a five-day visit focused on anti-corruption and commercial rule of law issues, said that “there’s good cooperation” between Chinese and U.S. prosecutors “in finding ways to repatriate corrupt officials or ill-gotten assets”.

“Our prosecutors on both sides yesterday discussed a number of specific cases and they look forward to increasing cooperation on those cases,” Kerry told reporters at a briefing.

Some of these cases include U.S. investigations into alleged bribes paid to Chinese officials by companies from the United States or registered in the United States, under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, he added.

He declined to be more specific and said he was not in a position to comment on whether the United States was close to extraditing anyone.

“The United States currently does not have an extradition treaty with China, but there are other mechanisms available to pursue fugitives,” Kerry said.

“Most fugitives from justice immigrated to the United States illegally, many of them have been repatriated through our immigration laws, and deportation, under those laws.”

Lai has been rejected as a refugee in Canada after claiming asylum based on fears that he will be executed if forced to return to face criminal charges for corruption and smuggling.

Federal court judge Michel Shore dismissed in a ruling Thursday night Lai’s last avenue to avoid deportation, which could happen as early as today.

Shore said a stay could not be granted because Lai failed to prove the Chinese won’t keep its promise. She said the Chinese government has given assurances to Ottawa that Lai will be treated fairly in its justice system and will not be given the death penalty.

“The life of the applicant is in the Chinese government’s hands,” wrote Shore. “The assurances are present. A new contractual government-to-government climate has been created by the assurances. . . . The future, yet to be seen by both countries and others, will stand as witness to the outcome.”

Beijing has criticised a decision by Canada to grant a work permit to a Chinese citizen charged with smuggling and considered one of the country’s most wanted fugitives, the Beijing News reported Saturday.

“Canada’s conduct has prompted the strong disapproval of the Chinese people and China is extremely concerned by the Canadian decision,” the newspaper quoted foreign ministry spokesman Jiang Yu as saying.

Yu said that although Canada had insisted it was not a refuge for criminals, “the attitude shown by Canada is totally different”.

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday that authorities had decided to give Lai Changxing a visa. Canada’s courts have refused to deport him citing concerns over China’s treatment of prisoners.

I didn’t know I was a surveillance target until the day I walked into a hotel in China’s Fujian province. I was pushing past half a dozen workmen changing lightbulbs in the glum but busy lobby when a uniformed man stepped in front of me. Blue jacket, creased trousers, braided epaulets, peaked cap: government security officer. Politely, he asked whether I would mind answering a few questions. He stood erect, with the manicured swagger of a corporate CEO. Next to him, a gangly plainclothes colleague gave me a so-you-thought-we-wouldn’t-catch-you look.

The Canadian official who approved Lai’s removal order failed to properly consider Lai’s claim that he would be tortured, a Federal Court judge ruled…

The slow pace of Lai’s deportation case — which has gone on for seven years — has become a thorn in Chinese-Canadian relations even though Ottawa has supported Beijing’s efforts to have him returned…

Lai is accused of running a multibillion-dollar operation that bribed officials and police to avoid taxes and duties on goods ranging from oil to cigarettes that were smuggled into China’s Fujian province in the 1990s.[Full Text]

China’s most famous fugitive has spoken publicly for the first time about his relationship with a senior member of the Chinese politburo, Jia Qinglin, a controversial figure whose family has long fended off corruption allegations.

The fugitive, Lai Changxing, is fighting extradition from exile in Canada where he fled in 1999 after being accused of being the mastermind of a billion-dollar smuggling and graft racket in Fujian province.

In comments in an interview with Hong Kong’s Chinese-language Asia Week magazine, Mr Lai said he had known Mr Jia, his wife and his secretary and driver in Fujian province in the 1990s. [Full Text]

Lai Changxing is the smuggling kingpin involved in the greatest known corruption case in the history of the People’s Republic of China. He is presently fighting a deportation order in Canada and part of his argument is based upon the fact that Canada does not deport people to countries where they could face possible execution. The following is the translation of an article in Asia Weekly (Yahzhou Zhoukan) in which Lai Changxing discloses his intention to publish his memoirs….

Lai Changxing told Asia Weekly that he has decided to write a book and then tell his personal experiences and the truth about the Yuanhua case: “I want to let more people in China know about how I grew up, how I conducted my business and what I did step by step.” He said that his business, his inner thoughts and his deals with senior Chinese Communist officials “are known only to myself. I was not a murderer or arsonist like what the Chinese authorities say. I was just a businessman. The Chinese people are only listening to the one-sided story of the Chinese government. They do not know what I am really like as a person.” [Full Text]